Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 14(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven
on the children of men,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek God.
3 They all turn aside,
together they become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat my people as they eat bread,
but do not call on the Lord?
5 There they were in great fear,
for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You shame the counsel of the poor,
but the Lord is his refuge.
7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!
When the Lord turns back the captivity of His people,
Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be glad.
Judah Threatened With Invasion
4 If you will return, O Israel,
says the Lord,
return to Me.
And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight,
then you shall not be moved.
2 You shall swear, “As the Lord lives,”
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
then the nations shall bless themselves in Him,
and in Him they shall glory.
3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
Break up your fallow ground,
and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
and take away the foreskins of your heart,
you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
lest My fury come forth like fire,
and burn so that no one can quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.
5 Declare in Judah and publish in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the trumpet in the land.
Cry aloud and say,
“Assemble yourselves,
and let us go into the fortified cities.”
6 Set up the standard toward Zion.
Seek refuge, do not delay.
For I will bring disaster from the north,
and a great destruction.
7 The lion has come up from his thicket,
and the destroyer of the nations is on his way.
He has gone forth from his place
to make your land desolate.
And your cities shall be laid waste
without an inhabitant.
8 For this gird yourself with sackcloth,
lament and howl.
For the fierce anger of the Lord
is not turned back from us.
9 It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord,
that the heart of the king will fail and the heart of the officials;
and the priests will be astonished
and the prophets will wonder.
10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ whereas the sword reaches the throat.”
False Prophets and Teachers(A)
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives; 7 and if He delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man lived among them, and what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds tormented his righteous soul day after day); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, 10 especially those who walk after the flesh in pursuit of unclean desires, and despise authority.
They are presumptuous and arrogant, and are not afraid to slander the angelic beings.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.